Archive for May 31, 2011

Pixel Qi had promised some new screen technology at Computex this week, and the company has delivered, with a fresh 10.1-inch super-thin panel. Unlike the existing 10.1-inch screen, as used in the Notion Ink Adam, the new panel runs at 1280 x 800 making it ideal for Android Honeycomb slates; meanwhile, as ARMdevices' video demo shows, it's far more sunlight-visible than the iPad.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer is one of the coolest and most desirable tablets on the market. We put up our review of the Transformer not too long ago and came away feeling pretty good about the Asus offering. We also mentioned last week that the tablet was getting an OTA update to Android 3.1 this week. Tablets with the new update will support something new that Android gamers will really appreciate.

Qualcomm's own Uplinq conference may be starting later today in San Diego, but that hasn't stopped the chip company from turning up at Computex with some hardware to play with. Quanta had prepared a 10-inch tablet running on Qualcomm's latest dual-core Snapdragon, NetbookNews reports, running Android 3.0.

Nielsen tracks all sorts of things for people that are interested in various markets. One of the markets that the analytics firm tracks that geeks tend to be really interested in its the market share for various smartphone operating systems. The latest figures are in from Nielsen and it looks like the growth of the major smartphone operating systems may be leveling out. Android is still the most popular OS on the market, but its lead over iOS may have stopped growing.

ASUS' glasses-free 3D gaming notebook will likely get most of the attention, but the Republic of Gamers team has also brought along plenty of kit for the DIY enthusiast. In addition to the ROG Crosshair V Formula series motherboard shown yesterday there are the ROG Maximus IV Extreme-Z and ROG Maximus IV GENE-Z motherboards, plus the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 based ROG MATRIX GTX 580 and ROG MARS II graphics cards.

You didn't think ASUS was going to leave it at a single Republic of Gamers motherboard and a clutch of tablets did you? The company's computing arm has brought a whole bevy of ROG-branded kit to Computex this week, including everything from video cards, gaming notebooks and desktops, 3D displays and more. Top of the tree is probably the ASUS ROG G53SX Naked Eye 3D gaming notebook, with a glasses-free 3D display paired with Sandy Bridge Core i7 processors and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M graphics.

ViewSonic has outed its latest LCD monitor, and it has high hopes for the 24-inch ViewSonic V3D245wm-LED. Billed as "the ultimate 3D monitor" it offers an integrated 3D emitter for use with the bundled active shutter classes, as well as offering HDMI 1.4a input and Full HD 1080p resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate.

Ultrabook may be the fancy branding, but Intel isn't relying solely on a swish name to make its Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge notebooks appealing. Later in 2011 will come various "responsiveness innovations" including a MacBook Air-style instant-resume feature called Rapid Start, which promises just 5-6 seconds between hibernation and being ready to use, along with Smart Connect, for streamlining social networking updates.

Nokia's first two Symbian "Anna" handsets, running the updated version of the Symbian OS, are now shipping. The Nokia E6 and Nokia X7, announced in April, will each get the new, faster browser, a native portrait-orientation QWERTY keyboard, and a boosted version of Ovi Maps with public transport routes among other tweaks. Meanwhile, the Nokia N8, E7, C7 and C6 will get an Anna update "in the coming months."

It's not just Ultrabooks that Intel is pushing at Computex this year: the chip company also has Atom news to share. That concerns Cedar Trail and a Moore's Law outpacing shift to a yearly die-shrink schedule: Intel reckons Atom chips will shift through the 32nm of Cedar Trail, past 22nm, and hit 12nm within three successive years. Technically impressive, but for the consumer it should mean significant gains in power and battery life. Meanwhile, there's also Medfield news for tablets and smartphones.